The Double Is The Uncanny

The Monsters What exactly is the uncanny? In reading excerpts from The Uncanny, Sigmund Freud explored that question. He mentioned different situations where the uncanny exists, one of which is in the double. In the excerpt, he provided reasons as to why the double is uncanny. Some of those reasons include its relation to the foreign self, the fact that it is caused by a narcissistic fear of death, and the way in which that fear is suppressed and revealed. These reasons are also true for Monsters. The two seem to have a connection. In fact, as we explore further in research, we find that monsters may very well be a form of the double. One of the reasons which I found extremely interesting, but Freud only mentioned acutely, was the idea that the double is a “self-projection,” and he mentioned it being somehow foreign (Blake and Cooper 186). It relates to the fact that when we look in a mirror, or at a picture, or notice our own shadow on the ground, it looks like us but it is not. That person in the mirror can’t move on their own, and they can’t
They may say that monsters are what distinguishes us from the “other’ or what we don’t want to be; that they can’t possibly be a double if they are deformed or altered. They can’t be us if they look nothing like us. The truth is, “the absolute other to human beings, is not easy to find” (Classen). Even though most monsters are human-like, we focus intently on the physical body of the monster, and the deformities it often owns. We focus on the deformity of the monster that Mary Shelley created in her mind; the skin, the bulging eyes, the sewn together pieces (Shelley 56). We don’t often pause to think what horror could have occurred in her life to influence such a monster to be created. The physical attributes of the monster are not as important as what the monster